Total Eclipse of the Sun, 1999

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11 August 1999

Great idea, we thought - pop over to France, avoid all the
crowds in Cornwall, better chance of good weather on the
Continent, etc etc. Ha!

After a three hour wait at the Tunnel on the eve of the
eclipse, we eventually got to the Hotel des Beaux Arts
overlooking the river in Compiègne (recommended) at about 11pm,
dumped our bags and wandered off to find something to
eat. Ended up at Au Bureau, a crowded but excellent bar
in the centre of town, where we had a pizza and drank in the
atmosphere and a few beers.

We got to bed at about 1am, and up early to travel to
Noyon. Just as well - joined our first traffic jam of the
day, taking about two hours to travel the 10 miles or so to get
to Ribecourt, a couple of miles south of Noyon itself, and
smack on the centreline of totality. Established
ourselves on a great spot beside the road, just north of
Ribecourt, halfway up the hill, with a great view over the
plain to the east south east to see the shadow of the moon
travelling away towards India. Set up the cameras on
tripods - the Canon SLR with 600mm mirror lens, and the
Panasonic digital video camera to record the great moment:
Bailey's Beads, Diamond Ring, corona, prominences etc.
Lots of other excited people there as well, eagerly
expectant.

The only trouble was, the weather didn't want to play. We
had thick overcast all morning, with the clouds just thinning
slightly half an hour before totality to give us a brief
glimpse of the moon having a nibble before thickening up
again. Then it started to drizzle, so we had to cover up
the cameras.

Already fairly murky, it got dark rapidly at 12:22 CET, just
like somebody turning a dimmer switch down, and I could only
just make out my watch face. All the street lights of
Ribecourt down on the plain before us came on. Away to
the south east, we could see the horizon still well lit.
Two and a quarter minutes later, and the dimmer switch was
turned up again - seemingly taking just a second or two to
become light. Away to the south east, all was now
dark. Normal daylight returned within a couple of
minutes, and we all trooped off to our cars.

An hour later, the clouds parted, and the sun shone.
By this time we were well esconced in the most horrendous
traffic jam to get back onto the A1 to head for Calais,
surrounded by cars registered in Britain, Belgium and
Holland. By the time we had fought our way back to Calais
through the jams, there was a cloudless blue sky.
Rats! Stopped off to fill up with cheap booze before
going back through the tunnel, so some good came of it.

Our view of the sensational 1999 total solar eclipse

A few minutes after totality - the clouds part briefly to give a glimpse of the partially-obscured sun.

All in all, not a good excursion. Ok, we saw darkness
at totality, but that was all. So we've vowed to head for
Madagascar in 2001 to have another go...... {later note: we
failed.}